EQ Marine & the Marinaut 215

[Yellowstone]

The Marinaut has many, many design features that show improvements over the current C-Dory. The standing room for a six five person (standard) makes complete sense. The side saddle tanks utilize the room that in the C-Dory is not used. Placing the batteries on the sole puts 120 lbs where it belongs. The cutout makes complete sense. A curtain on an upper track could go across the opening when privacy is desirable.

A few questions. Has the table berth been eliminated, or can it be added?
Does the transom accommodate only one motor? Could the side saddle tanks be retrofitted to a C-Dory.

If side saddle tanks could be retrofitted, I would jerk my tanks in a heart beat, put the batteries port and starboard on the sole and have considerable extra storage underneath the well plus gain the space of the starboard lazarette. The bulkhead of the C-Dory is non structural in terms of the hull and could be removed allowing easier access to the forward berth.

The Marinaut shows many refinements that should make it a winner. My best wishes to the design crew. John

 

[Sea Wolf]

John-

Lots of good questions and thoughts in your post!

Maybe someone could also suggest they offer dual Armstrong brackets for twins, making the boat even larger inside, and longer on the waterline and ride. :smiled

Or once the new boat is established and de-bugged and in production for awhile, they could just go ahead and design and build a 25-26 footer with the fully enclosed head, etc., etc. (Ben probably has it half or more done in his head already!) :lol:

Joe. :teeth :thup

 

[Les Lampman]

Hi John,

I have two thoughts in my head at the moment:

One is that this is still the C-Brat site and I'm a bit reluctant to head off solidly into Marinaut territory. Most of the info from Dave has been due to the fact that he (and I) are among friends here and he's been sharing the experience of developing the boat. Now that it's "real" marketable boat I may have to get the blessings of the hanchos so as not to get ex-communicated here.

Second is that while I know the current boat pretty well and have looked at most of the building photos and the development stuff I don't/won't know all the answers the way Dave does. So I'm reluctant to answer incorrectly.

That said, in the 215 as it stands now the dinette does not form a berth (if that's what you meant by table berth). Could it? I can't say the answer is absolutely "no" but it would change a great deal. The cushions from the aft dinette seat are used as the extensions of the v-berth and there's a solidly mounted co-pilot seat on a swivel as the forward dinette seat which would have to be dealt with. I believe that anyone longer than 5' or so would have their head or feet hanging out over the v-berth and I don't think there's quite enough height difference between the v-berth and where a dinette berth would be to allow that in comfort. But...never say never...Dave my have already thought of this and we're pretty good at doing custom stuff (with a professional cabinetmaker available).

The transom accommodates ONE main engine...no twins on this boat. There's room for a kicker on a bracket as well.

Side tanks in general could be retrofitted to the C-Dory 22 but not the side tanks from the Marinaut (without an unusual stroke of luck) as the boats are totally different. You could make a template (form) out of plywood (or masonite, etc) and mock up tanks for the CD22; then a fuel tank maker (like Coast in Bellingham, or others) could weld them up in aluminum.

You can open up the port side of the forward cabin bulkhead on the CD22; I've been aboard such a boat and it works well.

The Marinaut has many, many design features that show improvements over the current C-Dory. The standing room for a six five person (standard) makes complete sense. The side saddle tanks utilize the room that in the C-Dory is not used. Placing the batteries on the sole puts 120 lbs where it belongs. The cutout makes complete sense. A curtain on an upper track could go across the opening when privacy is desirable.

A few questions. Has the table berth been eliminated, or can it be added?
Does the transom accommodate only one motor? Could the side saddle tanks be retrofitted to a C-Dory.

If side saddle tanks could be retrofitted, I would jerk my tanks in a heart beat, put the batteries port and starboard on the sole and have considerable extra storage underneath the well plus gain the space of the starboard lazarette. The bulkhead of the C-Dory is non structural in terms of the hull and could be removed allowing easier access to the forward berth.

The Marinaut shows many refinements that should make it a winner. My best wishes to the design crew. John

 

[Les Lampman]

Hi Joe,

In general I don't care for brackets like the Armstrong. They're really best on deep-v performance boats and they were originally intended to set the motor back away from the transom and elevate the prop to enhance high speed performance.

Since they've become de rigueur in the boat world; it's an way for boatbuilders to offer several "models" of boats and only build one hull.

Unless you're going for ultimate performance I don't feel it's "the" way to get extra length if you know that from the beginning and can design it in. It costs far less to add two feet of fiberglass to a boat than to add a bracket. The problem is adding two feet to an existing boat design requires a new set of molds and that's the expensive part. That's why brackets (except for specific hull types) are a better deal for the builder than the owner.

An Armstrong would not work well on a Marinaut (due to its fairly flat bottom). What's needed is a hull extension (like the Rosborough boats have) which is shaped just like the hull but adds the 30" needed to accommodate the engine(s). On a Rosborough that extension is $5,000; the same 30" (assuming the mold is done) might add a couple hundred bucks to the cost of the hull if done in mold.

The question becomes: is the buyer willing to pay (say $4,000 for a boat the Marinaut's size) for a bracket to gain 30" of boat and the ability to perhaps use twins? Or...would a boat two feet longer designed that way from the ground up be a better solution? It's a tough call.

And even a bracket would require some changes to the current molds due to the changes necessary to accommodate mounting the bracket and to open up the transom/motorwell area.

In short it changes the boat from what it is now and what the vision of the boat was. Since there are no overriding technical reasons why twin engines are better for the intended use of the Marinaut 215 the only reason to alter the existing transom area (and give up all that it offers) is solely for increased sales and that's not a certainty whatsoever. I don't feel very many folks will choose not to purchase a Mairnaut 215 based only on the fact that it uses a single main engine. At least that's been my experience with the Arima boats over the last 12 years (since most of them also only accommodate a single) and they're quite often used in offshore situations (far more than I've found with the CD22).

I'm pretty sure the larger boat has been thought of too :roll: though I have no particular knowledge of that and the Marinaut 215 has to prove a viable product before the next (if there's a next) model comes along.

John-

Lots of good questions and thoughts in your post!

Maybe someone could also suggest they offer dual Armstrong brackets for twins, making the boat even larger inside, and longer on the waterline and ride. :smiled

Or once the new boat is established and de-bugged and in production for awhile, they could just go ahead and design and build a 25-26 footer with the fully enclosed head, etc., etc. (Ben probably has it half or more done in his head already!) :lol:

Joe. :teeth :thup

 

[Yellowstone]

Hi Les - thanks for your reply. It has been fourteen years since we last talked at EQ. The side tanks on the Marinault appear to be in sections of three per side. I have always felt the area under the gunwale shelves was wasted space. Wonder how the tanks shown are actually attached to the sides of the boat. And on my first C-Dory, I did make part of the port bulkhead (on a SS hinge_ open up to accommodate a forward facing seat which required the legs to stick into the berth area. On my second dory I split the table to make a forward facing seat conform to a conventional seat with legs dropping to the sole. Thanks for the reference to a tank maker. I'm almost ready to come out your way to look the new creation over. Take care. John

 

[Mighty Bite]

Marinaut and EQ Marine has to be a clear winner for NW boaters. Meshing an exceptional boat with the premier dealer and rigger in the industry is clearly a winner for everyone.

 

[Les Lampman]

Hi John,

I'm going to go a little bit out on a limb here (trusting to memory is what I'm doing) but as I recall the tanks are not fastened to the hull sides. Rather they sit in cradles molded into the hull/liner at the aft and forward ends of the tank. [Perhaps Dave will save me here ]

I'm not following you on the 3-per-side thing. It's just one 30-gallon tank under each side deck (maybe I missed what you meant here).

Les

Hi Les - thanks for your reply. It has been fourteen years since we last talked at EQ. The side tanks on the Marinault appear to be in sections of three per side. I have always felt the area under the gunwale shelves was wasted space. Wonder how the tanks shown are actually attached to the sides of the boat. And on my first C-Dory, I did make part of the port bulkhead (on a SS hinge_ open up to accommodate a forward facing seat which required the legs to stick into the berth area. On my second dory I split the table to make a forward facing seat conform to a conventional seat with legs dropping to the sole. Thanks for the reference to a tank maker. I'm almost ready to come out your way to look the new creation over. Take care. John

 

[oldgrowth]

John – I will attempt to explain how the fuel tanks are mounted.
Notice the knuckle (ridge) a little over half way down on each side in this photo. The tanks sit just above these.

When the one piece floor is added, it is sealed around this knuckle and a pedestal is molded in for the tank to be bolted to, as in this photo. This is at the stern of the boat.

The front of the tank is bolted to the wings of the cabin that the removable bulkhead is mounted to. You can see a small tab at the bottom of the tank in this photo. That is the forward mounting point.

In this photo you can see the tank on the right side of the photo and the left side is where the other tank mounts.

Notice all mounting holes are well above any potential water, so the possibility of water penetration between the hull from a poorly sealed mounting bolt is greatly reduced.

This photo may be the impression the tanks are in three parts and I remember stating somewhere that the tanks have two baffles which divides the tanks into thirds. The baffles run up and down inside the tank to keep fuel from sloshing back and forth. The stripping in the photo is an inexpensive way of breaking up the large aluminum side of the tank. The tanks can also be painted or power coated, depending on what a customer wants.

Dave
www.tolandmarine.com

 

[Yellowstone]

Les & Dave - thanks for the pictures and explanation. I now understand how the tanks are installed. Even baffles inside to keep the fuel from sloshing forward and aft - You folks are thinking about everything.

John

 

[mjsiega]

Are the hulls and decks cored? if so, with what? And is the cockpit self-bailing? Thanks.

-Mark

 

[oldgrowth]

Are the hulls and decks cored? if so, with what? And is the cockpit self-bailing? Thanks.
-Mark

Mark – the hull and deck floor are cored with one inch eight pound high density foam. The cabin top, gunnels and other areas that may have a person standing on it is one half inch eight pound high density foam. The eight pound high density foam is solid, light and highly resistant to water penetration.

The Marinaut and this type of boat has a floor system that is below water level so self bailing decks do not work on them. Instead the Marinaut has an 1100 gallon per hour (that’s more than 18 gallons per minute) automatic bilge pump.

Dave
www.tolandmarine.com